London Road Cemetery

Derrickarthur, if you have the LRC Burials CD the squares 156, 210, 203 & 258 you are looking for are all on the SouthEast map. (as a last resort you should find it is map_2.pdf in the 'maps' folder on the CD) Let me know if you can't find it.

Hi, I am hoping someone can help me. My father has recently passed away and in his paperwork was burial information for a stillborn baby on May 8th 1964 at burial plot 258 at London Road. Dad's surname was Jack and he has signed the paperwork. Can anyone help me and tell me where the plot is located and if it was a boy or girl (sister or brother to me)? With thanks, x

Hi Debbie, welcome to our forum. I have sent you an email. If you let me have some more info I can probably assist in locating what you are looking for.

I know I have mentioned this before but never had any confirmation - does anyone know whereabouts in London Road the actress Mary Ure is apparently buried?

Hi Neil, She's not listed in the burial records that I have access to

Neil. Found 2 links about (Eileen) Mary Ure in the Helensburgh Heritage & Helensburg Heroes which both confirm that she was buried in London Road Cemetery in 1975 but the reason was not known.

Hi Neil. I have chased this old chesnut a couple of times. The only FACT I ended up with was "she was buried in a London Road Cemetery". Google this and it throws a few, my betting is Scotland. Good luck. Derek

Hi all (& NeilsYard), was looking through the small window of the air raid shelter (previously the old carriage entrance which was converted into a shelter in 1929 (Source)) in London Road Cemetery with my camera and managed to get a fairly good look inside. showing WW2 air raid shelter from within cemetery (taken 25-05-2015). Showing the blast door entrance on cemetery side (taken a few years ago). Showing the blast door entrance from London road side (taken a few years ago).

The two Photos above, were taken via the window looking into "Air raid room 2" (25-05-2015). I have quickly made a rough diagram below showing how I think the air raid shelter is laid out (I wish it was open to the public- but unfortunately the gates are locked, therefore it may not be 100% accurate as I could not see into "Air raid room 1" due to the "L" - shaped blast doors). It must have been quite scary to be in there as a WW2 bomb was dropped mistakenly on the cemetery about 20 yards away from the shelter (you can still see the damage on the surrounding gravestones). Luke.

Was also looking at an account in the Moonlight Sonata book of an unexploded bomb that landed "just over the cemetery wall". Can anyone remember the air raid shelter or has anyone been inside when it was open to the public to walk through from London Road into the cemetery?

I think those images explain why few people in my area used the shelters. Just add the green mould on the walls and a few rats running around and it gives a fair picture of the war time shelters. Unexploded bombs, I knew of three in Coventry, suppose they could still there. A bomb falling onto soft earth could bury itself up to 30ft in the ground. A lengthy and dangerous job to get out.

Hi Norman Conquest, yeah I don't think I'd be too happy trying to sleep in a damp, dark, overcrowded shelter, especially in mid-winter. Which is probably why so many used Anderson shelters (although I suspect they were quite possibly equally damp and cold, but at least you were in your own garden) and internal Morrison shelters.

Really interesting to see - Thanks Luke

You are invited to join the Friends of London Road Cemetery for a Walk and Talk round the Cemetery on Sunday 7th June, meet at the Paxton Memorial in the old part of the Cemetery at 2.00 pm. This walk is to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sir Joseph Paxton's death. Paxton was asked to design the Cemetery in 1845, with the Cemetery opening two years later in 1847. Paxton was also MP for Coventry for ten years.

Thanks Luke, that is a fascinating fact. I've ofter driven past there and wondered what the bricked up doorway was. What was the other room used for originally?

Hi Flapdoodle. I am not completely sure what "air-raid room 2" was for previously; I presume it was a room adjoined to the carriage entrance and was used for storage of carriage/horse related items (?) - but I'm certainly open to suggestions as to its purpose (although I suspect it was probably something mundane). If your interested, there is another room within the wall: further down there is a "single-vaulted store" previously used for storage of equipment (eg: a wheeled bier/'hearse hand-carriage' - as originally horses were not allowed into the cemetery). It seems a lot smaller than the air-raid rooms - Source Outside of store. Inside store. There was quite large gaps between the wooden doors and the wall so just about managed to get a photo of inside: There is also a wall for tablets (between the store and the air-raid shelter) that Joseph Paxton intended for mural tablets but obviously the concept was not popular as only one mural was inserted: Also just realised in my previous post I made a typo as I wrote that the shelter was built in 1929 not 1939 (guess that would have been some brilliant intuition to build it 10 years before WW2 ). Luke.